We - I mean BRFCS - have got me worried. Does anybody know why we're showing the Dundee friendly as "Cancelled", while the club website - when I last looked before looking back on here - shows it's due to start in 2 days, 23 hours, 2 minutes and I forget how many seconds?? I haven't yet bought my train ticket to Dundee - still waiting for my new Railcard to come through - but I've got my hotel room booked and my ticket for the game. So why are we showing it as cancelled?🤔

I'll also be keeping an eye out for how Hughes goes on with Bradford City this season. I know they're 2 Divisions below us; but he seems to have had a real clearout at whatever Valley Parade's called these days. If memory serves, he's recruited Harry Chapman - be interesting to see how many first team games he gets & Ritchie Smallwood.

Additionally to the point islander200 makes, the owners - Gibson at 'Boro, and the family behind Bet 365 (sorry; haven't time to look up their surname) at Stoke City - are: i) local to; & ii) fans of - their clubs. We've certainly not been helped by the length of the 'chain of command' between our owners and Ewood Park. Or wherever our CEO is based these days.

I'd say it almost certainly would have done under the Mogadon regime. However, I think the factor - which might mean the Hartlepool friendly [b]isn't[/b] cancelled - is that it's one to which the club is providing transport. And if the game's cancelled, then the bus fares will have to be refunded to those of us sufficiently enthusiastic/barmy about seeing Rovers on another new ground to many of us. As one who's already booked his seat on that bus, I wouldn't dream of saying the club can't process refunds on season tickets [u]and[/u] the bus tickets to Hartlepool, you understand, . . . 😉

All of that's true; the thing I was looking out for, when we sold him, was Armstrong's PL form. So far - big proviso, I know - he looks like yet another forward who we got the best out of.

That says more about the media's impression of the IQ of the average football fan, imo. It's (quite) interesting that we're not being seen as "Tomasson's Rovers". Guess that's because JDT only played 1 season in the Premier League. Still, I'd prefer us to go under the radar initially, rather than crash & burn, like our neighbours to the east.

I'm another who regrets the speed with which the club dropped the idea of us having a matchday programme, once the EFL decided that their provision was optional. If the provision of coaches for us to get to the pre-season Friendlies is a sign of a more enlightened attitude in the Boardroom, perhaps they might re-visit the issue of matchday programmes as well. For example, I found an article in the programme for our pre-season game against Rangers a fascinating lesson about the history of this great club of ours; and how many games we had against Scottish teams in the era before the foundation of the Football League.

I'm a bit unusual in all this because, although there are some friends are convinced I must have blue & white blood, I haven't had a season ticket since before the pandemic. Back in those days, I lived over Rochdale way and because I haven't driven a car since I took early retirement 15 years ago, every home game necessitated me leaving home at 11.15 to be sure of getting by bus to Ewood before the kick-off and I didn't usually get home till 7.15. I'm not saying I moved back to Blackburn simply to reduce my travelling time to Ewood but it was certainly a fortunate spin-off from that decision! And I'm in the position of being able to - or choosing to - afford a season ticket. And this week's appointments at Ewood have certainly put more of a spring in my step than has been there for at least the last three seasons. To me, it felt like a new day had dawned at Ewood. You (I!) would have thought that such a step change would have been marked by the Board jumping on the Jon Dahl Tomasson bandwagon and pushing hard to reconnect with fans who've been alienated as much by the dourness of the public face of the old regime as anything else. But no; same old Rovers. I [u]will[/u] be getting a season ticket, but I'm holding fire to see if the Board is shamed by Sharpe's article in the Telegraph quoted earlier in this thread into being proactive for once in their lives. And, to mix my metaphors, while I'm holding fire on buying a season ticket, I'm not holding my breath for the Board making the most of JDT's appointment.